The two months remaining mark has officially come and gone, leaving us with just weeks which are barely remnants of time.  Apparently the average cost of a wedding in Australia is between $36,700 (source: IBISWorld) and $48,296 (source: Bride To Be magazine).  I count myself (and Kurt) fortunate that we are not remotely average.  Having never thought of myself as an average human bean, I'm not surprised.  I am surprised, however, that people spend so much money on one day.  And I thought we were bad!

On Saturday we are meeting up with our celebrant to discuss what we want in our ceremony.  Having spent the last couple of months getting everything organised, I guess it did skip our minds to actually consider how we want the day to go!  (wing it??) 

Next week, I am off to Auckland for yet another sim check, and am trying to motivate myself to study.  I also would like to head up the coast next week for a hair trial and to look at decorations for the reception... but this all depends on motivating myself to study around this, and not getting called off reserve.

I go to Auckland next Friday, tomorrow I have one flight home to Brisbane (currently overnighting in Rockhampton) - and all the days between then and Auckland are reserve and days off!  I won't be practising any approaches then!

Oh yes and if someone looks the best on their wedding day that they will look for their whole life ever, I have few hopes for myself.  Pass the chocolate, please.

Did I mention that I am writing this post because I really don't want to study?

And why does Australian Aviation have so many rules?

And this is just a cool picture of some clouds hanging around in front of the sunrise this morning.

...52 minutes before we go for dinner... I should study... 

Father's Day

Sunday 15 June, 2014 is Father's Day, in Ireland, and that's confusing because in Australia it is sometime in September.  Why all these countries cannot coordinate, I do not no.  Suffice it to say that I am 100% sure that I have the most amazing father in the world, and this is my opportunity to say so.

My father's name is Michael, he is intelligent, kind, gentle and the best father I could ever have.  He has always been there for me, always making time in his incredibly busy schedule to fit me in.  I can remember as a small child sitting by him in his office as he worked, simply enjoying being with him.  (and being pretty irritating too, I am sure, although I don't remember him losing his patience)

My father is always ready and willing to help people out, being an excellent 'fixer', he always says yes even when he has much to do himself.  People at home talk of 'needing a Michael' around the house which is proof of this!

I love to talk to my father, he is a great listener.  I would never swap him for anything, he is definitely the number 1 father in the world, and I love him.

And finally, lots of OXOs for my dad.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox

Wish I were there to give you a real hug.

A couple of weeks ago, Kurt managed to nag me into a state of okay, fine, we'll get you a bow, as long as it's a cheap one, which was a bit of a compromise for both of us.  So having endured about 13092790109388888 years of bow hunting research, we traipsed off to our 192837049867th archery shop, where we found the cheapest recurve bow we could find and snapped it up greedily.

From originally wanting a high poundage bow, Kurt settled for a 24lb bow that I would also be able to shoot - as he sensibly recognised that anything above about 30lb would be impossible for me to draw back.  We also managed to pick up 8 of the cheapest possible arrows - 4 long enough for me to shoot, and 4 a bit longer for Kurt's amazing long stretchy arms.

And then we contentedly went home.  Or so I thought.  Until Kurt started complaining that we went to buy him a bow and ended up buying me one... and that now he would have to wait until after the wedding to get a bow that he liked... and oh, the drama.

So now I have a bow.  And Kurt went off shooting it a few times, while I went to work (it doesn't happen very often, but when it does, it happens when we have something else planned), and so I didn't actually get to use my bow but at least I had the knowledge that it was mine.  And the bow hunting research continued...

Finally we went to the club together, and on the very first target I managed to hit a very small piece of metal which colourfully exploded the arrow in a shower of sparks, and managed to blow the entire tip off it, so now I only had three.  I also discovered that the $2 finger tabs that we had purchased off ebay (the bow string rips into your fingers if you don't use some sort of protection) just didn't work for me, they kept slipping and the arrows kept hitting everything but the targets, and it was altogether very frustrating.  The arrow explosion was cool though.

So, we went to another archery shop - not the one where we bought the bow and arrows, having decided that it was cheap and nasty and really, we probably shouldn't have bought the bow there, except that we are cheapskates and didn't want to (insert:  I didn't want to) spend any money on archery...  Anyway... we went to this other archery shop and the lady looked at our bow and said it was a much nicer bow than she thought it would be when we had described what we bought it for - and then they measured us up for arrows and found out, as we had thought, that the arrows we had bought were completely useless... and I ended up buying a deerskin leather glove to protect my hand and six custom made arrows that were just for me... and poor Kurt once again ended up with nothing.

After which point we went to do archery again and I shot amazingly with my amazing new arrows and they flew beautifully sharply through the air and I skillfully managed to scare all the targets almost to death.  Except of course they didn't die because, it's rare to kill something just by scaring it.  And poor Kurt used the old arrows until one fractured on hitting the target and a second one snapped dramatically as he shot it which was a little scary.  So, now he has only two... two cheap and nasty heavy arrows, and a little tab that slips off his fingers, and I am preening myself with my pretty bow, custom made pink & yellow arrows, and deerskin leather glove... 

...and now we're back to the bow hunting research.  Kurt has officially renamed his ipad as "the bow hunting device".

Poor Kurt...

Kurt sulking about archery

Homemade pizza from scratch - complete with stuffed cheesy crust - and boy did it taste good!  Kurt made his side to his specifications (bbq, ham, salami, mushrooms & pineapple) and I to mine (tomato pizza sauce, capsicum, onion, olives, mushrooms, ham).

Not exactly on the pre-wedding diet though.

...And now back to trying to set up a wedding gift registry - more complicated than we thought it would be !  

Yesterday, I asked a man to marry me.  Not like that , silly.  I actually asked him if he could marry both Kurt and myself, which sounds weird.  It reminds me of the Monty Python sketch:


 It was rather easier than in the sketch, as he agreed with little reservation, just a few things to iron out, and as unfortunately he is away until the middle of June on a mission trip, nothing we can do in the meantime - which leaves me itching !  I am such an instant gratification sort of girl!  In the words of Queen "I want it all, and I want it now."

As far as the wedding planning goes, we officially rock.  We only have a handful of things left to tick off the list, all of which are minor (such as getting the boys' suits - which I say is minor, because everybody wears suits, how hard can it be?).